In 2014, City Councilmember Kriss Worthington directed the City Manager to address the digital divide by making technologies more accessible for moderate- and low-income residents of Berkeley. To discover opportunities to achieve this goal, the City of Berkeley hired Nutter Consulting to survey similar projects and initiatives that cities have undertaken across the country. We researched RFPs, feasibility studies, city websites, press releases, digital equity strategic plans, and broadband plans from 21 cities, culminating in a matrix of best practices.

In the past five years, leading cities across North America have made tremendous inroads to testing and deploying smart city technologies to address key challenges related to maintaining and replacing aging infrastructure, managing maintenance costs and providing improved services to residents and community members. Recent developments in technology and data platforms for mobility, energy, waste and water present new opportunities for increasing the efficiency and quality of municipal services.

However, a gap exists between how cities currently procure goods and services from vendors, and the vendor engagement processes and financing that cities need to implement new technologies. Bridging that gap is necessary to enable municipal staff to effectively implement their smart city strategies, whether to save energy, reduce water consumption, or other technological approaches to improving sustainability. They need a better way to get the right tools for the job.

The framework is built on exploratory research and interviews conducted with over 12 cities that assessed both traditional procurement processes and new procurement models being used by cities to engage technology vendors. The case studies in the report range from the City of Chula Vista working with energy software provider Gridscape to build a smart grid, to cities like San Francisco and Somerville, MA creating innovation hubs and innovation labs, which can be the building blocks for a pipeline from ideas to implementation of new municipal programs.

Drawing on the expertise of the USDN network member cities and industry expert knowledge, the report highlights lessons learned and best practices for both vendors and cities to facilitate better working relationships. The goal of the Smart Cities Vendor Engagement Framework is to provide cities with different approaches to working with technology vendors to leverage the benefits of emerging smart technologies in pursuit of smart sustainable city goals.

One significant barrier to smart cities is related to the municipal procurement processes that can be a source of delay, set back and frustration in building innovative, smart city programs. The Smart Cities Vendor Engagement Framework delivers valuable lessons from cities that are field testing new procurement processes for a range of technologies and programs. For example, cities such as Seattle and Pittsburgh have created districts within the city focused on specific urban challenges. These geographic areas are useful for engaging with the public and building partnerships with businesses that can help solve the issues.

In highlighting and publishing the procurement methods of cities with the most innovative programs, we hope to provide value to others considering the integration of smart, data driven technologies into their infrastructure and service delivery systems. For instance, one key challenge is for cities to get initial buy in from the private sector or business community, which can thwart efforts to pilot new technologies.

In the Seattle 2030 District case study, the city had been grappling with a way to implement an energy-use disclosure ordinance for commercial buildings. Seattle created a membership based district which allowed them to engage with an initial group of building owners to present technologies and explore their best uses across the building stock. Even something as basic as narrowing the geographic target area within the city has led to a clearer path for implementation of building energy efficiency technologies and a measurable improvement in energy use.

Ultimately, creating smart, sustainable infrastructure requires cities to partner and work with the private sector (as well as academia and the community) and to have systems and processes in place internally that will facilitate the most seamless interactions possible. Through experimenting with different types of arrangements as described in this vendor engagement framework, more cities will be able to create, test, and iterate new technologies and uses of data to advance sustainability and innovation.

The Smart Cities Vendor Engagement Framework is available for free download online.

With the installment of the new Trump administration comes the responsibility to watchdog our climate progress, to ward off attacks on existing protections and to find new ways of advancing the climate and clean energy commitments of the past administration.

President Obama was a climate champion in many ways. The Obama administration joined over 190 countries in adopting the Paris Agreement on climate change. The Clean Power Plan has been a major driver of the clean energy conversation and has helped US companies and utilities use cleaner energy sources and strengthen commitments to cutting carbon emissions. The ban on the Dakota Access oil pipeline marked a major win for land use and clean energy. Strong action was also taken to protect our land and water resources by creating the largest marine sanctuary to date, and by protecting over 550 million new acres of land in the US.

We have now witnessed that the new administration is demonstrably unsupportive of climate change action and in his first few hours after the inauguration, the new president sent strong signals that he is planning to dismantle our national climate protection commitments. In fact, just today, the President reopened the opportunity for the Dakota Access pipeline to move forward.

At Nutter Consulting, we are committed to being a partner for cities, businesses, foundations and nonprofits that stand firm in their commitment to clean energy, smart cities, shared mobility, green infrastructure and the climate mitigation and adaptation activities underway that are helping to ensure our sustainable future, despite the shifting national political winds.

In 2016, we worked with many visionary clients on a variety of sustainability and smart cities projects to drive forward impactful innovation.

Representative client projects from 2016 include:

Engaging with over 15 U.S. and Canadian cities of the Urban Sustainability Directors Network (USDN) to develop and publish the resource guide “Smart Cities for Sustainability: A Sector-by-Sector Tech Review” which describes the main technological interventions helping to advance sustainability goals like carbon emission reduction in the building and energy, transportation and waste sectors.

Joining Advanced Energy Economy (AEE) and the Bay Area Council to produce the seventh annual Clean Energy Ministerial (CEM7) for the US Department of Energy, during which nearly 60 companies and NGOs and 10 subnational governments made over $1.5 billion in commitments to deploy clean energy technologies and increase energy access around the world.

Supporting The JPB Foundation and their mission to increase access to nature for low income communities by planning and facilitating the Urban Park Leaders Summit and crafting an initial Urban Parks Funding Strategy.

Now more than ever, action at the local level matters. Cities offer the hope many of us still hold to design and implement necessary climate protection measures and will also increasingly serve as the incubators on new sustainability and smart cities concepts.

Climate action at the national level is looking bleak and we should remain diligent in holding the current administration accountable for any attempts at rollbacks. Meanwhile, our firm will continue to provide the support necessary for committed local governments and organizations working to fulfill their sustainability and equity missions. By conducting policy analysis, engaging stakeholders and utilizing new technology and data tools to green the built environment, reduce carbon emissions from the transportation system and implement zero waste programs, we will play a role in ensuring that environmental protections remain and serve all, including our most vulnerable communities.

There is clearly plenty of critical work to do in the coming months and years and we’re ready for the challenge.